Sydney Airport welcomed the ACCC’s monitoring report released today, which found that passenger satisfaction at Sydney Airport has increased to its highest level in 10 years as a result of greater value and choice across the airport and strong investment in improved facilities.
“We’re listening to our customers and are taking their feedback on board,” Sydney Airport Chief Executive Officer Kerrie Mather said.
“As a result, improving our facilities, increasing capacity and providing more value and choice for our customers across the airport has been a key focus and we’re delighted that the results were reflected in today’s ACCC report.
“In fact, Sydney Airport was the only airport to have increased its passenger rating this year (ACCC Airport Monitoring Report 2011-12, p xv.), a result of the investments we’ve made to add capacity, streamline check-in, screening and arrivals processes and add value for passengers, including free WiFi and improved terminal facilities.
“Even though we’ve made significant investment, the report acknowledges that our price increases have been the lowest of all the airports and passengers appreciate the results with the highest quality of service rankings in a decade.
“Since we introduced online parking offers 18 months ago, we’ve seen an increase in people parking at the airport as nearly 200,000 customers have taken advantage of discounts of up to 73 per cent off standard rates and daily rates as low as $5.95. As a result, since the period of the report we’ve also invested significantly in more parking capacity, including a new 2,300 space multi-storey car park at T1 and more spaces at the Blu Emu long-stay car park to meet the demand generated by our value offers.
“For most Sydney-siders, our online offers compare favourably with catching a taxi to and from the airport, but unfortunately the ACCC report only looks at standard drive-up rates.
“Nearly half of all people parking at the domestic terminal also took advantage of 10 minutes’ free parking, while 29 per cent of drivers parked for free at the international terminal.
“Our rates are about one-third cheaper than the CBD and compare to other car parks in high demand areas in Sydney.
“We’ve had excellent feedback from business parkers at the airport that our service is convenient at prices that compare favourably to the CBD.
“There is significant choice in options for accessing Sydney Airport and our focus has been on improving public transport services, access and affordability and advocating strongly to reduce the fare to encourage greater usage of the service, as well as adding more bus services.
“We’ve invested strongly this year in major construction and improvement works across the airport, including the construction of a terminal extension and addition of five new gates at T2 - Australia’s busiest airport terminal - and more check-in capacity and SmartGates at T1.
“As a result, passengers have experienced shorter waiting times for check-in and arrivals, as well as shorter waiting times for taxis.
“More than $2 billion has been invested in new facilities and additional capacity since 2002 and we will continue to invest to meet customer demand.
“Our development concept plan to evolve Sydney Airport into two integrated terminal precincts with international, domestic and regional services in each will unlock more capacity and ensure we have an airport for future decades.”
Contact:
Tracy Ong
Manager, Media and Communications
(02) 9667 6470 or 0437 033 479